I didn't sleep much after I put my finger on it. I was doing what Chris told me not to, I was stressing out about it. At school Teddy was still going bananas and Vern looked like I was about to shout his secret out any minute. He fidgeted and jumped every time I tried to talk to him.
"What's his problem?" Chris asked me, "He acts like he's the next one you're going to corner in the bathroom."
"Ha-ha, funny." I rolled my eyes. "I don't know." I looked away trying not to look guilty of lying. Chris just reached into his locker and stuffed his backpack with books.
"Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't last long."
"Yeah, me too." I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't. Vern made me promise and Chris didn't need to dwell on it like I was.
A week later Vern was sporting a black eye and a scraped up, bruised face, Teddy a split lip and a nose that would just randomly cut loose and bleed uncontrollably. His glasses were taped together. I didn't ask when they sat down at the table; I just kept on eating my apple. Chris, however, couldn't resist. "Jesus H. Christ! What the hell happened to you two?" He could barely contain a sly smile.
Vern looked away passively not saying anything, Teddy was bursting with excitement. "Man, Vern-o and I were trying to bum some smokes of this guy Saturday, he was all surly drunk and was about to give us 'em, and these two other guys come stumbling outta the bar screaming. I tell them to shut the hell up, and they just charge me so Vern and I just start wailing on 'em. You should've saw 'em, probably went cryin' home to their old women." He grinned the whole story throwing his hands around wildly.
Vern looked around like nothing was interesting. "Shit, it looks like Vern took the worst of it." Chris looked at him, motioning for him the turn his head. Purple and yellow blotches covered from his hair line to halfway across his chin.
"Well the one guy got him down and was slamming his head into the sidewalk. I threw the other guy down and ripped that guy off of him before he turned his face into hamburger." Teddy was beaming with pride, Vern smiled uncertainly.
Vern had emerged from pudge and baby fat, he'd morphed into this solid mass, more lean. He was the size of some of the football guys. Puberty was kind to him. Teddy, on the other hand was only a little bigger than me and I was a bean pole. I looked at Vern with raised brows and he only looked away. The only way I could see Teddy throwing anyone around was if he was some kind of masked hero, and he wasn't.
"Lucky they didn't have knives." I muttered. Hoping Teddy wouldn't re-fabricate his tale to have some. We'd be lucky if we didn't hear his story floating around the halls about how it was five guys instead of two.
We had a science project to work on so Chris and I headed to my house to start it. "I don't think Vern and Teddy won that fight." He laughed, "Did you see how beat up they were, damn. Too bad they didn't beat on Teddy's ego."
"I don't think they fought two guys." I pushed the front door open.
"Fought two guys? Who?" My mom passed by with the mop. She stopped and looked at us; the stern look was taking over her face.
"Teddy and Vern." Chris answered immediately, more intimidated of her than I was.
"Oh." She pushed the mop a few more times, "Their poor mothers. Mrs. Tessio already had her hands full with Billy. Mrs. Duchamp hasn't been all right since her husband was put back into the hospital." She shook her head. "I'm glad I had such good boys." Her smile was a little sad and she kept mopping. I watched her move into the kitchen with a frown.
"So you don't think they did?" Chris asked heading up the stairs.
I followed him, "No. I mean Teddy pull a guy off that's big enough to get Vern on the ground?"
"Vern's not tough, Gordie. He's still a wuss." Chris snorted. I pulled out our back board and snatched the box of permanent markers from my desk laying them carefully on the floor. I looked at him and shrugged. Maybe he was right but it still didn't seem very realistic to me. "It might've been just one guy." He said while he was trying to write in his best hand writing our results.
"I guess." I didn't really want to talk about it anymore because if I did I'd end up exposing Vern and I wasn't up to explaining everything. It wasn't my place.
I could just imagine Vern confronting Teddy or vice versa about how everything wasn't working. About how nothing was right and everything had turned to shit, like we had done too many times to count. Chris saying that Vern was a wuss was right. So Teddy would've gotten him on the ground and smashed his head as many times as he could because he was crazy. He'd stop somewhere when Vern stopped fighting back and look at him about to say something to fuel the fire. Vern would take the opportunity to punch him in the face managing to split his lip and another one for good measure clocking him in the nose. All of that flashed in my head. I sat there dazed.
Chris waved his hand in front of my face, "Gordie?"
"Yeah?" I focused on his face.
"Don't worry so much." He smiled and flipped through our notes. He was right, maybe I was wrong. I could just be projecting our problem on Vern and Teddy because it was easier than looking at Chris and me any more than I had to. "At least it wasn't us." He laughed.
Mom popped in asking is Chris was staying for dinner and he nodded yes, for once in a very long time. She disappeared and her footsteps faded down the stairs. I couldn't get my brain to stop, but at least he was comfortable enough to eat dinner with us again. It wasn't about being awkward; it was about building our trust back up. I managed to push Teddy and Vern to the back of my mind because that was them and they didn't need me butting into it. However, I could help but feel a tug on my heart.